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Fasting Facts

posted Aug 25, 2014, 5:03 PM by Rebecca Smith

The other day a friend told me about some advice they were
given by a health “professional” in regard to weight loss. He had put on a bit
of weight while on holiday and wanted to lose it. This health and fitness
“professional” told him that in order to lose the weight he should stop eating.

It’s safe to say that I was absolutely shocked by this. I
couldn’t believe that someone in the industry of helping people would give this
sort of destructive advice. What makes this even more destructive is that there
are people out there who would use this advice to lose weight. Nine times out
of ten that is because they don’t know any better and they trust their trainer,
coach or other professional that is giving this advice. So let me educate you
on what happens to your body when you have extended fasting periods.

We all know that we eat to provide energy for day to day
activities and that from our foods we get all of the nutrients that we need to
stay healthy. So, guess what happens when the food supply stops, or is not
sufficient. We no longer have all of the energy needed for daily life, and we
are no longer getting the nutrients we need to stay healthy.

However your weight will decrease.

This weight loss is caused by your body using whatever it
can to provide energy. Believe it or not when your body is in this ‘starvation’
state, it is actually creating more and more stores of fat to be used when your
body runs out of other fuels. Your body is a pretty clever mechanism, it
recognises when there is no more fuel coming in, so it makes the most of what
it has. Firstly it will slow down your metabolism in an effort to conserve
energy. It will also utilise nutrients that are floating around to be used up
as energy before fat cells. This also means that any muscles that you have been
working on building, or toning, will degenerate, as they store energy that your
body needs. All of these fuels are not as efficient as carbohydrates at
producing energy; therefore you will start to feel very fatigued. Going through
the motions of each day becomes very tiring and you can forget about being able
to do any decent physical activity.

When you have reached your goal weight and decide it’s about
time to start eating again your body is in serious need of replenishing its
nutrient and carbohydrate stored. Because your body is still in ‘starvation’
mode so the food you eat will be stored as fat for when no more energy is
coming in. However there will constantly be more food coming in to provide
energy, so your fat stores keep increasing. This means that you now have more
fat in your body then when you started and you have less muscle (which by the
way is always metabolically active, meaning it is always burning energy, unlike
fat which just sits there).

A study was done in America not too long ago to test three different
weigh loss methods, with starvation being one of the methods tested, along with
low carbohydrate diets and a mixed diet. The participants, obese males, were
monitored on weight and energy levels pre-experiment, during the experiment and
post-experiment. During the starvation experiment the participants underwent a
ten day fast. This resulted in a rapid weight loss; however the energy levels
of the participants also declined and they stopped participating in voluntary
recreational activities. Following the ten day fasting period the participants
went onto a 1200 calorie post-experiment diet where they regained most of the
weight they had lost. This experiment found that a mixed diet was the most
successful weight loss method, with the no weight gain in the post-experiment
phase.

So, the moral of the story is that in order to lose weight
fasting or having a diet too low in calories is not going to give you the best
results. You end up with a greater fat mass than you started with and it is
just an uncomfortable process to withstand. For successful weight loss the key
is to eat enough to sustain your energy levels for daily activity and to be
eating the right amounts of all types of foods.

To find out if you are eating the right amount of calories
to sustain your energy levels while still promoting weight loss speak to your
trainer and organise a nutrition session with them. They will take you through
everything you need to know about portioning your meals and what to eat when to
successfully reach your weight loss goals.